Pivi?' said he. 'Yes, it is--no, it isn't. It is not the same
Pivi--but there is a kind of likeness. Tell me, are you Pivi?'
'Oh, yes!' said Pivi. 'But I am much better looking, and there are my
two wives, are they not beautiful?'
'You are mocking me, Pivi! Your wives? How? Where did you get them? You,
with wives!'
Then Pivi told Kabo about the kind woman, and all the wonderful things
that had happened to him.
'Well, well!' said Kabo, 'but I want to be handsome too, and to have
pretty young wives.'
'But how can we manage that?' asked Pivi.
'Oh, we shall do all the same things over again--play at slinging, and,
this time, you shall break my leg, Pivi!'
'With all the pleasure in life,' said Pivi, who was always ready to
oblige.
So they went slinging, and Pivi broke Kabo's leg, and Kabo fell into the
river, and floated into the bamboo, and the woman blew him out, just as
before. Then she picked up Kabo, and put him in the shed, and told him
what to do when the Black Ant came, and what to do when the Red Ant
came. But he didn't!
When the Black Ant came, he shook himself, and behold, he had a twisted
leg, and a hump back, and was as black as the ant.
Then he ran to the woman.
'Look, what a figure I am!' he said; but she only told him to climb the
tree, as she had told Pivi.
But Kabo climbed with both hands and feet, and he threw down the nuts,
instead of carrying them down, and he put them in the hut. And when he
went back for them there he found two horrid old black hags, wrangling,
and scolding, and scratching! So back he went to Pivi with his two
beautiful wives, and Pivi was very sorry, but what could he do? Nothing,
but sit and cry.
So, one day, Kabo came and asked Pivi to sail in his canoe to a place
where he knew of a great big shell-fish, enough to feed on for a week.
Pivi went, and deep in the clear water they saw a monstrous shell-fish,
like an oyster, as big as a rock, with the shell wide open.
'We shall catch it, and dry it, and kipper it,' said Pivi, 'and give a
dinner to all our friends!'
'I shall dive for it, and break it off the rock,' said Kabo, 'and then
you must help me to drag it up into the canoe.'
There the shell-fish lay and gaped, but Kabo, though he dived in, kept
well out of the way of the beast.
Up he came, puffing and blowing: 'Oh, Pivi,' he cried, 'I cannot move
it. Jump in and try yourself!'
Pivi dived, with his spear, and the shell-fish opened its shel
|